Lightning Bolt Of Pain and "Amour"

   A couple of days ago, I was sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling on a sock. I can't tell you the countless number of times I've done this in my life, without anything untoward occurring.
   That particular morning, however, as one leg crossed over the other, I suddenly got what felt like a lightning bolt go through my lower back on the right side.

Like this...but in my back!

   I am not immune to the occasional twinge as a day progresses but this was the kind of pain that stopped me dead in my tracks. Well, not exactly "dead in my tracks" as I did manage to make it into work but after about fifteen minutes at work I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish my day and was fortunately able to make it home, after stopping to pick up some pain meds.
   That was the morning before last and yesterday I thought I was making a little progress. I had taken the day off work but had managed to gimpily pick up my new car at Honda. The rest, combined with some low-risk movement, seemed to make me feel better. We watched some T.V. last night and then headed off to bed.
   Very early this morning, in a still-more-or-less-asleep state, I shifted in bed. Well, I shifted the wrong way and yet another bolt of lightning brought me (and Doralyn) fully awake, with a yelp. Doralyn groggily asked what she could do for me and I groggily replied not too much. At that point I really didn't know what needed doing.
   At this point, I've been up for a couple of hours and I feel as though I am back to square one with the back pain and any gains I felt I made yesterday seem to have been negated. Thank goodness it is now the weekend and we have no major plans so I can just rest and take it easy.
   Last night, we rented and then watched a movie called "Amour". It is a French-language movie which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film back in the Spring. Essentially, I think we regretted the time spent watching it. It's a very slow-moving film which takes place almost exclusively in the apartment belonging to a senior couple in Paris. The movie starts with the authorities

breaking into the apartment, to find the decaying body of the woman, who has been placed lovingly on the bed, amidst cut flowers. From there, the movie goes back to describe how the woman ended up there. About five minutes of the film near the beginning takes place in a music auditorium and then on a mass transit car. The whole rest of the movie then takes place in their apartment.
   The couple were once music teachers and, after attending a performance by one of their former students, the woman has a stroke in their apartment. The rest of the movie chronicles her slow but inevitable decline and the effect this has on their relationship as well as their daughter, who only sees them occasionally. The man opts to care for his wife at home, rather than have her committed to a facility, and this only leads to family tensions.
   As I mentioned, the movie is very slow-moving and claustrophobic and sometimes hard to watch. Emmanuelle Riva, the actress who plays the wife, does an outstanding job portraying the gradual change and suffering the woman must endure. For this role, she was nominated for an Academy Award for a leading actress and it's not hard to see why. Jean-Louis Trintignant, as the husband, also does a great job of portraying the man's love, devotion and frustration at having to see his wife suffer. If you want an opportunity to sit and ponder the inevitability of the aging process, then this is the movie for you. If, on the other hand, you want to be excited and uplifted--well, you might want to check elsewhere.
   At one point as we were watching the movie and the husband finding himself very much in the caretaker role, Doralyn asked me if this was what she had to look forward to. This was fairly typical of something we might have joked about at any time but it was even more appropriate last night as I was hobbling around with my bad back and she was trying to do whatever she could to take care of me.
   Early this morning when I yelped us both into a waking state, Doralyn ran through a list of things she might be able to do to help me alleviate the pain. When I replied in the negative, she then stated that I make it very difficult for her to take care of me sometimes. My reply was that I loved her for wanting to!